Friday, July 4, 2014

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- The 919th Special Operations Wing welcomed the 2nd Special Operations Squadron, its remotely piloted aircraft unit, to Northwest Florida. The 2nd SOS, comprised of about 140 Air Force reservists formerly located at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., began RPA operations at Hurlburt June 14. The unit is at Hurlburt, but none of the aircraft will be located here. Remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) are flown in various combat theaters worldwide. The 2nd SOS Airmen are associated with their active-duty counterparts in the 3rd SOS, assigned to Air Force Special Operations Command's 27th SOW at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M. In addition to changing locations, the squadron also changed aircraft from the MQ-1 Predator to the MQ-9 Reaper a couple of months ago. In 2009, when the 2nd SOS was first activated at Nellis, most of Air Force RPA functions, including AFSOC RPA, were centralized in Nevada. The move to Hurlburt completes the process of placing AFSOC RPA operations on AFSOC bases. Since its inception, the 2nd SOS has flown 57,225 hours on 2,346 combat support sorties. (Source: AFNS, 07/03/14)